Tag Archives: Challenge

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Microsoft’s Ben Rudolph (@BenThePCGuy on twitter), the creator of several cool campaigns in the past like #DroidRage, outdid himself. This time, he first teased, and then announced a challenge where he would pay $100 to anyone whose phone could beat his Windows Phone (an HTC Titan) at common tasks. These tasks included identifying songs and downloading them from stores, updating social networks, finding a restaurant nearby with certain criteria and getting directions to it, etc.

The challenges were in fact suggested by the challengers, and mutually agreed upon. This laid rest to the speculation that the tests were rigged to help Windows Phone win (for example, uploading to Facebook which is native on Windows Phone but not anywhere else). Believe me, I was there, and I heard that allegation a lot.

The challenges were in fact suggested by the challengers, and mutually agreed upon!

Here’s Ben introducing the challenge:

So, how did it go? As of this morning, Ben tweeted that he had 30 wins, 3 losses and a draw. I say that is pretty fantastic considering that the challengers who lost included some of the latest and the greatest phones from competitors like the Galaxy Nexus, iPhone 4S, Galaxy S II, iPhone 4, etc. Heck, there was even a Palm Pre Plus!

One of Microsoft’s problems with Windows Phone has been awareness in the general market. Folks who use other smartphones have got used to those systems, and the best way to get the Windows Phone advantages across to them is for them to actually experience it. There is only so much someone can do if you walk them through the system (trust me, I have done that a lot, and it is good, but not ideal). That’s why this campaign is even more fantastic. It takes something that a person likes to do on the phone, and shows how they could do it faster on Windows Phone. 30 out of 34 challengers realized that at CES, and because they “lost” the challenge, it was a great opportunity for Ben to educate them on that specific feature and why Windows Phone is faster at it.